Funny thing is, I was coming on here to post about the Shiny Toy Guns when I see Geoff’s post! Too little too late?
Eh, maybe…

Here’s the thing, unlike Mr. G, I was going to come here and confess about my guilty pleasure, Shiny Toy Guns.

You see… I’m that girl. I worked at a record store for all of college and a few years after to supplement my income. I was that girl who gave you that look when you couldn’t figure out what you were looking to buy… or when you bought that certain album. I still remember the day I first heard about the Spice Girls. *shudders* I was the girl who gave Fairuza Balk that look when she couldn’t find the Fugazi CDs *but don’t think I harbor any notions that she cared/paid attention*.
…
Ok, I can still sometimes be that girl…

SO! When I found myself seriously liking We Are Pilots (well… half of it) despite the videos, I had to come out of the closet to my best friend… who assured me it was all ok. … and who wondered why everyone keeps saying that?!

ANYWAY… I’ve heard from a few people that they are one of the hardest working bands around… When I kept seeing them in that LA Weekly, I just figured, well they’re an LA band! I mean… Incubus used to play all the time back when… and WAY before you could find Jane’s Addiction all over the place! … Ok so MAYBE that should have given me a clue *author’s aside: please don’t think I’m placing them in the same categories as the aforementioned bands… or most importantly Jane’s Addiction* I have to say that I had not had the pleasure (seriously! After all those chances in LA…) of seeing them live, and the old job sorter made it difficult for me on the off night that there was a possibility. Still, I’ve heard a good bit about the show they put on… and Geoff is one who apparently knows first hand.

So, yeah… for any closet fans, I’ll be there in the back with a martini… singing along under my breath.

Seriously, though, I’ve heard great things and I only hope that they can continue to surprise me and keep this …for now… well, I guess not anymore… “closet fan” for ever.

The New Shiny Toy Guns

I’ve been a fan of Shiny Toy Guns for quite some time. Back in 2006 the band played a show at the Aladdin Theater for a crowd of about 10 people. They played their hearts out.

They’ve come back to Portland several times over the past few years promoting their break out debut album We Are Pilots.

Now the band has re-organized. Lead singer Carah Faye Charnow has been booted from the band and replaced by Sisely Treasure (one of the contestants from The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search For The Next Doll). The band has a new album on the horizon called Season of Poison (out this November) and is coming to portland on Thursday, September 25th at Berbati’s Pan @ 8:00pm.

Shiny Toy Guns has two songs from their upcoming album up on their Myspace page and they sound really good.  I’m planning on going to the show and so I’ll post my complete report here, later in the week.

Buy tickets to the Shiny Toy Guns Show here.

It was late, well past midnight and it was the last day I was going to spend in the San Francisco Bay Area before heading off to college. I had called in to Live 105 and was chatting with Big Rick Stuart who was jockeying between our phone call and the on air play. Rick came on the air and wished me a safe trip and played a song to send me off. That was the kind of radio station Live 105 was.

Mark Hamilton was a DJ at Live 105. He was the voice you’d also hear promoting the DJ’s spinning tunes down at One Step Beyond or The X nightclub. He was surrounded by great music and great people. So it was a fantastic revelation (Back in 1994) to find that he landed here in Portland at the very young KNRK. I met him at one of the early KNRK snowball shows, the one with Everclear and No Doubt. He seemed like a great guy.

Unfortunately it seems that Mark has forgotten what makes a great radio station. Over time he tweaked the playlist favoring retreading bands like Sublime over debuting new music and new artists. Sublime might be a slightly notable band but I doubt they should be continually haunting the airwaves of an alternative station.

Recently KNRK did a major revamp to their playlist, out was most of the new or truly alternative music (except for bands coming to town in KNRK sponsored events) and in were classics. KNRK effectively remade themselves into a Rock Mix station. The switch started gradually, with ‘classic alternative’ artists like David Bowie. Listen to KNRK for 2 hours and you’ll hear classic Bowie at least once….Then came bands like The Cars and Tom Petty. Tune in enough and you’ll wonder if KNRK hasn’t fused with KGON. At times even KUFO is more alternative… Which is sad.

Perhaps KNRK is a victim of its own success. Late last year their morning show with Greg Glover began to beat the competition. Perhaps that taste of popular success fueled them on to chase the popular audience. But what used to be a fairly descent alternative station is gone. Many of the good people are still there. Greg is smart guy, knows his music and takes risks (Listen to his Bottom Forty Sunday Nights). Gustav is still the friendliest face of the station, his perfect playlist and track 7 show he wants the station to be a good one. Tara is just plain great, she knows what’s going on, but she’s as powerless to fix it as anyone.

It all boils down to Mark Hamilton… Program director. Who has made a major misstep with the station by building a playlist that simply isn’t alternative. At my home office I’ve switched of KNRK and listen to KEXP online. KEXP, based in Seattle, ironically is the station supporting MusicFest NW (while local KNRK is notably absent). I hear new music via myspace and am more likely to fire up my mp3 player than my radio…

Next year Community Supported KZME 91.1 is set to launch. If KZME follows KEXP’s model it could give KRNK a serious run for its money. Until then fans of alternative music need to email Mark Hamilton and let him know that the playlist changes aren’t welcome, and remind them what ‘It’s Different Here’ really means. KNRK keeps saying it’s YOUR station… So tell them what YOU want.

It’s the first day of the three-day weekend, and the last official weekend of summer. The weather is beautiful and the smell of freshly baked pies is in the air.

Yep - after weeks of hype in the Portland internets, the (first annual?) Portland Pie-Off is getting underway today at 3pm in Washington Park. Join Lelo, Radio Gretchen, Betsy, Bojack and everyone today for good pie and good fun!

Go the official Pie-Off site for all the details you’d need to know.

As our friend dieselboi would say…Eat More Pie!

I’m back! From a hopefully short-lived extremely busy time at both work and home and everywhere in between. And yes, I have some new exciting information for you. This will likely not be a surprise to most anyone, but Portland has come in as number 10 on Walk Score’s top 10 most walkable cities, with the Pearl, Old Town/Chinatown, and Downtown all being our most walkable neighborhoods. Looking through the other cities, all of the “most walkable neighborhoods” are in downtown areas, which seems to be a “well, duh,” statement to me, since, well… duh. Of course the more urban areas tend to be more “walkable” with the increase in amenities in a small area. Anyhow, iff you haven’t checked out your neighborhood’s Walk Score, fill in your address and compare against your friends’ neighborhoods. My own Center comes in with a score of 80 (with my more immediate area coming in with a 71/100 - very walkable, though for some reason the map does not see some amenities near my place, like the QFC on Burnside, but denotes some businesses incorrectly, like Commercial Refrigeration on Glisan as a restaurant). And in fact, I do tend to walk to a number of places in my ‘hood often. This is a fantastic tool for checking out other possible neighborhoods for relocation (also points out how many bars there are, whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to you).

Speaking of bars, the boyfriend and I will be hitting up the Brewers’ Fest tomorrow at opening time. As these type of things tend to grow exponentially each year, I’m excited about trying all of the tasty wares, but I’m not too excited about the possible hours of waiting in line. If things look too bad, we may just head to Belmont Station to attend the tapping there of some kegs not featured at the OBF. Have I mentioned that I’ve been here now a year? My Portlandversary was on 7/15, and I can’t think of another place (within reason) I would rather be. ^_^

Seems like it’s only been a few weeks since we had a beerfest - actually, it has! The Organic Beerfest was held a few weeks back, and was a thing of beauty (and heat). Coming up this weekend is the International Beerfest. Out of Portland’s many beer festivals, I think that this is my favorite. The beer selection is always amazing, and the do a good job of switching it up every year. It’s held in a great location (the north park blocks) and is dog friendly, because everybody knows that drinking beer is better when you can drink beer with dogs. It’s also a much more low key affair - a place to sit in the shade with friends and drink good beer, without all the hooping and hollering of the OBF fest the upcoming week (not that that’s a bad thing).

The lineup this year is looking stellar. My early favorites are the “120 Minute IPA” from Dogfish Brewing (with a whopping 21% ABV), the “Baird Temple Garden Yuzu Ale” from Japan, and “Cantillon Cognac” lambic-style from Belgium.

The fest is open on Friday from 4PM -10PM, Saturday from 12PM-10PM, and Sunday from 12PM - 7PM. Admission is $20 and includes a glass and ten tasters. However, if you get there during the first hour of the fest on any day, you get five extra tickets.

Finally, according to the FAQ, kids are not allowed.

You can get all the info you’d possibly need right here.

So I’ve been staying at a friend’s place whilst I find a) a job and b) a place to call my own (our own… I’m willing to share with the boyo, I suppose…)

It’s a nice little neighborhood that’s generally quiet, or so I have to assume.

How do I put this?

So I lived in the city of Long Beach in California right on Ocean Blvd. (so chosen for being right at the end of the route of the pride parade) Since we were right on a major street in downtown LB, it never surprised me when the drunks passed by at 3 in the morning, or the random screamer came by letting all the world know exactly what was on his or her mind… nor if there were fights right below the window. It was, of course, the LBC (just ask Snoop!).

That sort of thing here where I’m staying, however, seems out of place. Not so much because it happens on the street here in this seemingly quiet little area, but because it’s all coming from certain someones in this very building. So, while the rest of the street is nice and quiet… there have been things going on here… in this building, putting it out of sorts with the rest of the street… not to mention scaring the hell out of us!

I was reminded of a post that dieselboy posted about incidents on the MAX. There’s all sorts of shenanigans coming from certain someones in this building and it’s pretty obvious that things could go wrong at any minute… and yet none of the neighbors call the police, ask if my friend is ok in her unit, or say one damn thing to the authorities/landlord/anyone. Are they just waiting for things to go too far? What needs to happen before someone gets involved? Could it be that people are so used to their peace and quiet that, unless their peace is specifically interrupted, they don’t want to interfere in case it shatters their own little bubble?

I guess… I guess this was the sort of thing I expected living in the LBC, but never expected here in Portland. Well, at least not in this neighborhood.

A little while back I posted about the phone books that appear on our doorsteps several times a year. At the time we couldn’t find any way to stop their delivery - but now going to YellowPagesGoesGreen.org will end that extra pile of wasted paper coming to your home. Hooray!

Now we just need to get the Oregonian to stop tossing FoodDay on our doorsteps each week whether we’re subscribers or not. I thought maybe by leaving them in a pile for a month they’d just stop - but instead, my front walk just looks a bit whiskey-tango.

Or maybe when I get my new recycling roll-cart I can just leave one of the old yellow bins out there and they’ll drop straight in for me! (And stop with the plastic wrap in the dry months!!)

Now, unless you’ve been living under a rock (or not in Portland, I guess), you know that Deschutes opened their highly anticipated brewery and pub in the Pearl last week. Not wanting to go right on opening weekend, the boyfriend and I headed over on Tuesday evening after some shopping downtown and were greeted with a thriving crowd. We enjoyed some (now even more) locally brewed libations while waiting for our Olive Garden-esque pager to go off, signaling a vacated table, just for us. The place is HUGE, and by HUGE I mean really, really, really big. The indoor décor feels very Scottish with tartan carpets and lots of wood, and though the area is very open and tall, it doesn’t overwhelm due to the placement of separators (wainscoting, really) cordoning off sections of the floor. We were signaled after 25 of our expected 45-minute wait and were ushered to a table near the middle of the restaurant. We made sure the beer kept coming (enjoying new Portland-only brews as well as some old favorites) and ordered some food.

This is where the story gets interesting, kids - I had been reading all these reviews that there is some really good food at Deschutes - if so, I didn’t get much of it. I wanted to try the Elk Burger (being a game and a burger fan - not much there to go wrong), but instead went with the Cuban sandwich with a salad. The boyfriend ordered the fish and chips. The food was out incredibly quickly (though brought out by a different server, a pet peeve of mine, and without our requested sides), but when I bit into my Cuban, I was left wanting. It was okay, but it wasn’t really that good - the different meat tastes got lost in the saltiness of the corned beef, and the pepper tasted, well, from a tin. The bottom bread was soaked through with the moisture from the pepper, whereas the top slice was nicely browned and crispy. The salad was okay - just standard spring mix with a side of bleu cheese dressing (large hunks of actual bleu cheese were appreciated).

As we often do, the boyfriend and I stopped at our halfway points and swapped plates. Biting into the fish was a lovely crispy experience, but it seemed like the coating wasn’t “traditional” fish and chip coating and something more like Japanese panko. While it does provide a good crust, it just isn’t “fish and chips” to me without a proper wet coat before frying. It also seemed like maybe both the fries and the fish were fried at a slightly lower than standard tempurature, as the fries had taken on a lot of oil, and the fish was slightly flatish on one side and greasy on the bottom. The tartar sauce served was tasty, but there was no vinegar brought out (and we forgot to ask). The fries were the one saving grace - even though they were on the greasy side, they must fry them in something other than the standard cheapo soybean oil, because the flavor was fantastic. We eat our fries with mayonnaise, and these went perfectly together. They tasted like real potatoes (not re-formed starch), and we ate every single one of them.

All in all, go to Deschutes for the beer, and continue testing the food. It could have been an off night, but I checked with 3 others who visited the new pub within the last week who had the same experience. I’ll go back, of course, and try the elk burger (especially if the fries are that good consistently), and beer beer beer, the fantastic beer. Lovely glorious beer.

Stats!

Atmosphere: 7/10
Service: 7/10
Food: 5/10 (the fries upped the average a good 1.5 points)
Did I mention the beer?: 10/10

Deschutes Portland Pub and Brewery

210 NW 11th Avenue
Portland
(503) 296-4906

We were driving down Killingsworth last night past one of the large trailer parks - the park is all behind a big privacy fence - but right where one of the openings in the fence is - we see a little boy - maybe 5 years old - standing on the side of the road. He’s right on the curb - looking out into the street with the saddest look ever on his face. Out in the middle of the street is a hippity-hop.

I can only assume that it took a bad bounce and went out into the street, but I’m guessing the kid wasn’t supposed to be out from behind the fence - let alone go into the street. There’s a lot of traffic on that road. So he just had to stare at it almost in tears.

As we drove by I said to my husband how sad that made me - he agreed and whipped a U-y in the middle of the street. We went back, jumped out, grabbed the toy and brought it over to the boy - just as his father (we guess) was coming out from behind the fence just letting into the kid. It looked like it could have been a bad situation - the kid made eye contact, but the adult wouldn’t. I just really hope that the extra few seconds we delayed the man from dragging the kid back behind the fence gave him a chance to cool down a bit.